1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pepper mill and, more particularly, to an improved structure of pepper mill, which comprises a housing holding a driving mechanism, a top cover shell covered on the housing and defining with the housing a peppercorn chamber for receiving peppercorns inserted through an inlet in the peripheral wall of the top cover shell, and a grinding mechanism provided in the top cover shell and driven by the driving mechanism to grind inserted peppercorns into powder.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Various handy pepper mills have been disclosed for grinding peppercorns into powder, and are commercially available. FIG. 1 shows a pepper mill according to the prior art. This structure of pepper mill comprises a top housing 12, a bottom housing 16, a transparent intermediate shell 14 connected between the upper housing 12 and the bottom housing 16, a driving mechanism (not shown) mounted in the upper housing 12, an on/off switch 122 adapted to control the operation of the driving mechanism, an output shaft 124 downwardly extended from the driving mechanism and suspended in the transparent intermediate shell 4, and a grinding mechanism (not shown) provided in the bottom housing 16 and driven by the output shaft 124 to grind peppercorns into powder. When switching on the on/off switch 122 with the hand H, peppercorns are ground by the grinding mechanism into pepper powder 70 for application. This structure of pepper mill is still not satisfactory in function. One drawback of this structure of pepper mill is that residual pepper powder tends to fall out of the bottom dispensing port of the bottom housing when putting the pepper mill on a flat surface. Another drawback of this structure of pepper mill is that the top housing must be opened from the intermediate shell so that peppercorns can be put in the bottom housing for grinding. Further, when cleaning the pepper mill, the parts must be detached from one another.
The present invention has been accomplished to provide a pepper mill, which eliminates the aforesaid drawbacks. It is one object of the present invention to provide a pepper mill, which has its pepper powder dispensing port disposed at the top side. It is another object of the present invention to provide a pepper mill, which enables the user to feed peppercorns for grinding conveniently. It is still another object of the present invention to provide a pepper mill, which enables the user to clean the grinding mechanism conveniently. It is still another object of the present invention to provide a pepper mill, which well protects the internal grinding mechanism against outside dust. According to one aspect of the present invention, the pepper mill includes a housing holding a driving mechanism and an output shaft, a top cover shell covered on the housing and defining with the housing a peppercorn chamber, the top cover shell having a threaded top neck, a grinding mechanism provided in the top cover shell and driven by the output shaft to grind peppercorns into powder, and a screw cap threaded onto the threaded top neck of the housing for output of ground pepper powder. According to another aspect of the present invention, the top cover shell has a peppercorn inlet through which peppercorns are inserted into the peppercorn chamber for further grinding. According to still another aspect of the present invention, a bracket is provided inside the top cover shell and defining with the threaded top neck of the top cover shell a grinding chamber within which the grinding mechanism is driven to grind peppercorns into powder. According to still another aspect of the present invention, a transparent swivel frame is pivoted to the top cover shell and adapted to close/open the peppercorn inlet. According to still another aspect of the present invention, a protective cap is adapted to close the screw cap.